Dorothy and Harold Chambers have been dancing through more than seven decades of life together.

DAN TREVAN / Union-Tribune

Dorothy and Harold Chambers of Point Loma celebrated their 70th anniversary last month. The couple met in St. Louis.

The Point Loma couple, who celebrated their 70th anniversary last month, met in St. Louis. He asked her to dance, liked her moves, "and it just took off," he says.

Dot, now 91, and Hal, 94, laugh at the memory of their first real date. They mixed up the day for a formal dance and arrived a week too late. Since Dot was all dressed up with nowhere to go, they decided on a movie.

The couple dated for 11/2 years before marrying. At the time, he was earning 43 cents an hour as an apprentice machinist. She made $5 a week as a housekeeper. But that wasn't too bad, the Chambers point out, because rent was only $1 a day and a loaf of bread was 5 cents.

In 1940 they moved to San Diego, where he got a job at Consolidated Aircraft. During the war, he worked at the U.S. Navy Electronics Laboratory in Point Loma.

Dot was a Rosie the Riveter, working on B-24s at Consolidated.

"You bet it was scary living here then," Hal says. "We expected to get bombed."

"We had dark shades on the windows," Dot adds. "Every so often, they would blow air raid sirens."

Harold and Dorothy dated for 1 1/2 years before getting married. They have two children.

At night, the Chambers had a photo business at Fourth Avenue and Broadway downtown. She wielded the camera, photographing sailors and Marines with their dates at local nightclubs. He was the lab technician. They charged $1 a photo.

The Chambers have two children (he has another from a short first marriage), three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. He retired from Solar Turbines in 1976.

Though the couple initially concentrated on social ballroom dancing – waltz, fox trot, tango, rumba, swing – they added square-and round dancing. They taught for years at the Eagles Hall on University Avenue and in their converted garage/studio and sometimes traveled to other cities to teach on weekends.

Hal was honored recently by the San Diego Round Dancers Teachers Association.

Of their life together, Hal says, "It was one of those things – we were just suited for each other."

"We had fun together," his bride adds.

Hal's advice to couples starting out: "Find a good partner. Then don't be a taker. Everybody has to give."

Dot says, "Somebody's got to keep their mouth shut while the other is yelling. And don't be afraid to say you're sorry, even if you didn't have anything to do with (the disagreement)."

"Words that come out of your mouth can never be taken back," Hal says.

Dot has been sidelined with a severe broken leg since Mother's Day. The doctors weren't sure if she'd walk again, but Dot says she knew they couldn't keep an old cha-cha down. She's already graduated from a walker to a cane. And she plans to be back on the dance floor soon.

Though Hal says he could find another dance partner in the meantime, he won't. "Nobody could take her place."

The Chambers either swing dance together, they say, or not at all. He takes her hand, she puts down her cane, and they demonstrate a two-plus-two two-step.

While Dot recuperates, he's been spending his time in their dance studio with his extensive dance-music collection. He's converting thousands of old LPs, 45s and 78s to CDs.

Seventy years of marriage sounds like a long time, Dot concedes. "But it went fast."

"Too fast," Hal adds.

If you want to share the story about how you met your spouse, e-mail Marsha Kay Seff at marsha.seff@uniontrib.com. Please include your phone number. To read about how Hank and Jayne Slade are progressing in their journey through Alzheimer's, go to www.SanDiegoElderCare.com and click on the Demential Journal tab.